Is America to Blame for Russia's War in Ukraine?
Nations do not have unified, objective interests. The foreign policies that would best serve American power are not necessarily those that would best serve the Pentagon bureaucracy, which are not necessarily those that would best serve an incumbent president's reelection odds, which are not necessarily those that would best flatter the ideological convictions of his National Security Council, which are not necessarily those that would best please his party's top donors. Similarly, the policies that would maximize Russia's national security are not necessarily the same as those that would maximize the Putin regime's political stability. And in any case, the Russian president is not necessarily capable of accurately identifying either. It is bizarre to suggest that Russia's actions in Ukraine were dictated by its objective security interests when, by virtually any measure, Putin's invasion has already undermined those interests.
This last paragraph was what I came to the article due, but the lead up and context was very worthwhile:
Putin's invasion of Ukraine was a free choice. And whatever role U.S. policy played in determining Putin's decision, it did not force his hand. Critics of NATO expansion would be wise to stipulate this point, since doing otherwise only renders their causal analysis easier to stigmatize.
|
Jan. 6 committee concludes Trump violated multiple laws in effort to overturn election
The Jan. 6 select committee says its evidence has shown that then-President Donald Trump and his campaign tried to illegally obstruct Congress' counting of electoral votes and "engaged in a criminal conspiracy to defraud the United States."
In a major release of its findings, filed in federal court late Wednesday, the committee suggested its evidence supported findings that Trump himself violated multiple laws by attempting to prevent Congress from certifying his defeat.
"The Select Committee also has a good-faith basis for concluding that the President and members of his Campaign engaged in a criminal conspiracy to defraud the United States," the committee wrote in a filing submitted in U.S. District Court in the Central District of California.
|
Oath Keepers leader and 10 others charged with 'seditious conspiracy' - CNNPolitics
Boom goes the dynamite. Finally.
|
New Mexico Bans Qualified Immunity For All Government Workers, Including Police
Thanks to HB 4, New Mexico is now at the forefront of a growing trend to hold government officials accountable. Last June, Colorado became the first state to pass legislation that explicitly bans qualified immunity as a defense. While law enforcement lobbyists warned that Colorado's reform would lead to mass resignations, that hasn't come to fruition. According to the Denver Post, "at least 1,756 Colorado peace officers left their departments in 2020, which is fewer than the 2,061 separations recorded in 2019 and the 2,050 recorded in 2018."
|
How Donald Rumsfeld Deserves to Be Remembered
But Rumsfeld was the chief advocate of every disaster in the years after September 11. Wherever the United States government contemplated a wrong turn, Rumsfeld was there first with his hard smile—squinting, mocking the cautious, shoving his country deeper into a hole. His fatal judgment was equaled only by his absolute self-assurance. He lacked the courage to doubt himself. He lacked the wisdom to change his mind.
Fuck. That. Guy.
|
Biden proposes $250 billion investment in research
As excited as Biden's infrastructure bill is, I find this even more exciting.
|
Warren, AOC and others propose $500 Billion Bill for Green Mass Transit
It's a bit over a year since Warren dropped out of the Presidential race and I'm still sad I'm not writing President Warren, but things like this are still amazing and I can only hope that the Democrat control allows us to see some sweeping changes like this.
|
Secretary of State's first speech is excellent
I saw it tweeted and so I went and gave the first speech a read and it is astoundingly earnest and grounded and direct about this government's goals both domestic and foreign. Give it a read. Press isn't covering it because they are still drunk on the T-juice for four years and calm earnest politics aren't as ready headline fodder.
|
Tape of Trump and Georgia officials 'was found in trash of investigator's laptop'
Tr*mp just can't stay out of the news. Well, really, his past mistakes are coming back to roost. We will see if this becomes anything or if the teflon armor for the rich holds for him.
|
Senate Approves $1.9 Trillion Package
I am glad this finally crossed the finish line (well, basically.) It is a huge sign of success to start off the Biden administration.
|
Opinion | Joe Biden's Approach: Speak Softly, and Carry a Big Agenda (by Ezra Klein)
It wasn't a week ago I was on Twitter angry that we haven't gotten stimulus relief checks delivered yet. This opinion piece was a good reminder that there is more going on than just those checks. Biden and his team are pushing hard in a number of ways that would, each individually, potentially be presidency defining.
Ezra highlighted this first paragraph on Twitter, where I found the link to the article, but it's actually the second paragraph that I found most insightful and something to keep in mind regarding my own biases. It's something that people have to remember amid the craziness of Texas opening up fully for the pandemic - it wasn't the individuals in that state who made that decision, it was the governor and his leadership. Will many agree? Absolutely. But not everyone. And not even all Republicans.
A few pieces of political science research are shaping my thinking here. In 2012, Stephen Nicholson, a political scientist at the University of Georgia, published an interesting paper called "Polarizing Cues." In it, Nicholson asked people their opinions of proposed housing and immigration policies, sometimes telling them that Barack Obama supported the policy and at other times telling them that George W. Bush or John McCain supported the policy. What he found was that opinions didn't much change when people heard that a political leader from their own party supported a bill. But opinions changed dramatically when you told them a political leader from the other side supported a bill — it led to sharp swings against the legislation, no matter the underlying policy content.
When I called Nicholson to ask him about the paper, he gave an insightful explanation for the results. Humans tend to see diversity in the groups we belong to, and sameness in the groups we mistrust, he said.
|
Nancy Pelosi says 9/11-style commission to examine Jan. 6 Capitol riot
I'll take, "No shit for $900, Alex"
|
Unofficial Ranking of the Dead US Presidents
The author did a Twitter thread with facts about every President, and I discovered their page and found it interesting.
|
ProPublica Digs into the Taxing Business world and the government squeeze to keep Americans paying to file their taxes
|
I wonder if the someone who berated me for not watching the CSPAN feed of Clinton's Benghazi investigations, as were discussing the stupidity of electing Trump over her, will be as glued to CSPAN for the second impeachment trial of his disgrace-of-a-President?
|
Colorado Public Radio looked into Boebert's mileage claim
CPR News documented 129 locations where Boebert's campaign hosted a publicly advertised event or where her presence was documented on social media or by the news media.
The events ranged from Denver to Grand Junction, Pueblo and numerous other smaller cities.
If she drove roundtrip from her home in the Western Slope town of Silt to each of those destinations, Boebert would have accumulated about 30,000 miles, according to calculations performed with route-planning software.
Looks pretty cut and dry to me. She had an intern do her paperwork for mileage and assumed no one would challenge it, the approach is logical and meant that likely other people were following the same methodology.
|
Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman files paperwork for 2022 Senate run
I am glad to hear this. He's gotten a great buoy of attention from this election and the Pennsylvania GOP's antics. He's been a voice of a normal joe for the Democrats, bringing a blue-collar sensibility and personality. I would love to see him in the Senate.
|
